Posts Categorized: Demography

Making the Invisible, Visible: Toward Re-Envisioning Teacher Education at Thomas College

What does it mean to re-envision teacher education? This is the question that the faculty at the newly named Lunder School of Education at Thomas College have been asking and exploring. More than a quixotic pursuit, the purpose of this inquiry has been to re-design what we think of as classroom space, to re-construct an educator preparation curriculum, and to model both the distinct art and distin...

The Answer to Rural Woes Is Far More than Broadband

In recent weeks, presidential candidates have pledged billions of dollars to bring broadband and internet access to rural America. Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden and other Democratic hopefuls correctly realize that a lack of high-speed internet and other attendant technologies has profoundly affected rural economies. That’s a good start: Poor infrastructure derails job creati...

The Regional Blue Economy: Viewing a Healthy Ocean as Economic Opportunity and Moral Obligation

“It is an interesting biological fact that all of us have, in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean.” —President John F. Kennedy, Sept. 14, 1962, Newport, R.I. Half a century after President Kennedy made those remarks, our collective future as a ...

We Are the World? Making Sure Global Affairs Education Considers Diversity and Advances Inclusion

Today, questions around diversity and inclusion are in the front of our collective consciousness wherever we live in the world. This month, British Member of Parliament, Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi delivered impassioned remarks about Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s inflammatory rhetoric on religious dress. It was immediately preceded by the collapse of the Italian far-right populist, anti-migrant ...

Revisiting the Work of Dartmouth’s John G. Kemeny: A NEJHE Q&A with College Presidential Historian Stephen J. Nelson

Stephen J. Nelson is professor of educational leadership at Bridgewater State University and Senior Scholar with the Leadership Alliance at Brown University. In the following Q&A, NEJHE Executive Editor John O. Harney asks Nelson what lessons today's leaders could learn from his latest book, John G. Kemeny and Dartmouth College: The Man, the Times, and the College Presidency (Lexington Books, ...

A Bright Start on a Bright Future: Children’s Savings Accounts in New England and Beyond

As students throughout New England head back to school this fall, tens of thousands of them have a head start on a bright future through a Children’s Savings Account (CSA). These investments in children’s future postsecondary education are offered in cities and states throughout the region—and beyond—and all share a goal of boosting college-going. CSAs are long-term savings or investme...

Foundation President, Professor and “America’s Best Social Critic” on Higher Ed and the State of Intellectual Life: A NEJHE Q&A with Andrew Delbanco

"It’s time, as the phrase goes, to ‘take control of the narrative,’ or at least tell our story better than we have been doing—to convey how hard most faculty work, how modestly most are paid, how little job security they enjoy, and, most broadly, that higher education remains an indispensable public good in a democratic society.” Andrew Delbanco is a professor of American Studies at C...

Ain’t No Free?

The New England Board of Higher Education recently honored Hartford Promise and the Rhode Island Promise Scholarship with 2019 New England Higher Education Excellence Awards. And NEJHE has been paying close attention to innovations—and challenges—facing such "free college" programs. In June, the Campaign for Free College Tuition (CFCT) lauded NEBHE delegate and Connecticut state Rep. Gregg ...

Young People Are Hungering for Conversation, Even on Difficult Matters … A NEJHE Q&A with Mary K. Grant of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute

"Regardless of disciplinary area, problem-solving requires us to ask questions, to be curious and open-minded, to think critically and creatively, incorporate a variety of viewpoints and work in partnership with others." In the following Q&A, NEJHE Executive Editor John O. Harney asks Mary K. Grant, president of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, about the institu...

Undercover Professor: How Becoming a Student Made Me a Better Teacher

Three years ago, I graduated with an associate degree in liberal arts from Northern Essex Community College (NECC) in Haverhill, Mass. Although I was one of over a thousand students to graduate that day, my situation was a little different than those of my peers. You see, I am a full-time faculty member at NECC with a Ph.D. in organic chemistry. I had decided the year before to go undercover by...